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When we think about viruses we tend to consider ones that afflict humans—such as those that cause influenza, HIV, and Ebola. Yet, vastly more viruses infect single-celled microbes. Diverse and abundant, microbes and the viruses that infect them are found in oceans, lakes, plants, soil, and animal-associated microbiomes. Taking a vital look at the "microscopic" mode of disease dynamics, Quantitative Viral Ecology establishes a theoretical foundation from which to model and predict the ecological and evolutionary dynamics that result from the interaction between viruses and their microbial hosts. Joshua Weitz addresses three major questions: What are viruses of microbes and what do they do t...
A hands-on approach to quantitative reasoning in the life sciences Quantitative Biosciences establishes the quantitative principles of how living systems work across scales, drawing on classic and modern discoveries to present a case study approach that links mechanisms, models, and measurements. Each case study is organized around a central question in the life sciences: Are mutations dependent on selection? How do cells respond to fluctuating signals in the environment? How do organisms move in flocks given local sensing? How does the size of an epidemic depend on its initial speed of spread? Each question provides the basis for introducing landmark advances in the life sciences while teac...
CRISPR/Cas is a recently described defense system that protects bacteria and archaea against invasion by mobile genetic elements such as viruses and plasmids. A wide spectrum of distinct CRISPR/Cas systems has been identified in at least half of the available prokaryotic genomes. On-going structural and functional analyses have resulted in a far greater insight into the functions and possible applications of these systems, although many secrets remain to be discovered. In this book, experts summarize the state of the art in this exciting field.
The riveting account of how asymptomatic transmission drove COVID-19's global spread and catalyzed interventions to control it. Why was COVID-19 so difficult to contain and so devastating to people and economies worldwide? In Asymptomatic, author Joshua S. Weitz explains how silent transmission enabled COVID-19's massive and tragic global impact. Weaving the science of viral infections together with an insider's look at response efforts, Weitz guides readers through the shockwaves of successive epidemic waves as public health officials and academic research teams confronted the rise and risk of what was then a burgeoning global pandemic. The discovery of asymptomatic spread also fueled compe...
This volume reflects the different methods and new approaches to the study of Byzantine history that have characterized the work of Paul Speck, to whom it is dedicated, and above all, his insistence on a close reading and careful interpretation of the sources. These aims are encapsulated in the introduction by John Haldon, which gives a sense of where future studies should lead new generations of scholars. The following studies, by many of the leading authorities in their fields, look at a whole range of aspects of the history of Byzantium - its culture, theology, linguistics, literature, historiography, sigillography and art - and at the place of the Byzantine empire within the late antique and medieval worlds.
Given their tremendous success in commercial applications, machine learning (ML) models are increasingly being considered as alternatives to science-based models in many disciplines. Yet, these "black-box" ML models have found limited success due to their inability to work well in the presence of limited training data and generalize to unseen scenarios. As a result, there is a growing interest in the scientific community on creating a new generation of methods that integrate scientific knowledge in ML frameworks. This emerging field, called scientific knowledge-guided ML (KGML), seeks a distinct departure from existing "data-only" or "scientific knowledge-only" methods to use knowledge and d...
LIFE: A Transdisciplinary Inquiry examines nature, cognition and society as an interwoven tapestry across disciplinary boundaries. This volume explores how information and communication are instrumental in and for living systems, acknowledging an integrative account of media as environments and technologies. The aim of the collection is a fuller and richer account of everyday life through a spectrum of insights from internationally known scholars of the natural sciences (physical and life sciences), social sciences and the arts. How or should life be defined? If life is a medium, how is it mediated? Viewed as interactions, transactions and contexts of ecosystems, life can be recognized throu...
Interdisciplinary perspectives on the science, politics, and ethics of the 2013–2015 Ebola virus disease outbreak. The 2013–2015 outbreak of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) was a public health disaster: 28,575 infections and 11,313 deaths (as of October 2015), devastating the countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone; a slow and mismanaged international response; and sensationalistic media coverage, seized upon by politicians to justify wrongheaded policy. And yet there were also promising developments that may improve future responses to infectious disease epidemics: the UN Security Council's first involvement in a public health event; a series of promising clinical treatments and va...
A groundbreaking approach to scale and scaling in ecological theory and practice Scale is one of the most important concepts in ecology, yet researchers often find it difficult to find ecological systems that lend themselves to its study. Scaling in Ecology with a Model System synthesizes nearly three decades of research on the ecology of Sarracenia purpurea—the northern pitcher plant—showing how this carnivorous plant and its associated food web of microbes and macrobes can inform the challenging question of scaling in ecology. Drawing on a wealth of findings from their pioneering lab and field experiments, Aaron Ellison and Nicholas Gotelli reveal how the Sarracenia microecosystem has ...